Privacy Notice - Flying Start preschool programs

South Australia’s Office for Early Childhood Development (OECD) is the steward of the State’s early childhood development system. It runs the Flying Start preschool program (for 3- and 4-year-olds), which includes the Preschool Plus program (for families receiving additional supports), to help deliver access to 3- and 4-year-old preschool across the State (Programs).

What personal information do we collect?

To administer these Programs and comply with early childhood reporting obligations, the OECD needs to collect certain personal information about each child who accesses the Programs and their parents/guardians. This information includes:

• the child’s full name, gender, date of birth, home address, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander status, language background, immunisation status, whether the child is or has been in out of home care and whether they have a disability
• the parent/guardian’s full name, relationship to the child, refugee/asylum seeker status and details of any Health Care Card, Pensioner Concession Card or Veterans Gold Card held, and
• where relevant, information about the family’s Child Care Subsidy entitlement, including the family’s estimated annual income.

With the consent of parents/guardians, the OECD collects this information directly from the preschool service provider where the child accesses the relevant program (this could be an early learning service, a government or non-government sessional preschool or an Integrated Hub).

The OECD also collects information from the preschool service provider about the child’s preschool attendance and any other personal information reasonably required to administer the Programs and report to the Australian Government.

Parents/guardians are not legally required to consent to the above information being shared with the OECD, but if consent is not given, the child will not be able to access a government-funded place in a non-government preschool service.

How do we use the information?

The OECD collects the above information for the purpose of administering the Programs. This includes determining a child’s eligibility for the Programs and their eligibility for fee relief, conducting enrolment duplication checks across preschool services, assessing and providing funding entitlements, managing payments to preschool service providers and monitoring and evaluation of the Programs. If the OECD detects a duplicate enrolment, the OECD will disclose this to any preschool service providers (government or non-government) with which the child is enrolled.

For children offered a place in the Preschool Plus program, the OECD also collects the above information for the purpose of supporting the child’s participation in the program. This may include discussing the child’s preschool attendance with the preschool service and, if the child was referred to the program by another South Australian Government agency, sharing information about the child’s participation in the program with that agency.

In the performance of its functions under the Office for Early Childhood Development Act 2024 (OECD Act), the OECD may also use the information collected for research and evaluation in early childhood development. If the OECD engages a third party to assist with research and evaluation, the OECD will require them to use the information only for those purposes and to adhere to strict requirements about the secure storage and management of the information.

Who do we share the information with?

The OECD uses the information collected to meet national early childhood reporting obligations. This includes sharing information with the Australian Government (either directly or through the South Australian Department for Education) for the National Early Childhood Education and Care Collection and the National Preschool Attendance Collection to assess performance under the Preschool Reform Agreement and as part of the Report on Government Services and annual Closing the Gap data compilation.

The OECD shares de-identified enrolment and attendance information with the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The OECD will not otherwise use or disclose the information it collects unless required or authorised by law, including under the OECD Act, or the South Australian Government’s Information Privacy Principles Instruction (IPPS).

Storage and security of information collected

The OECD will securely store and manage the personal information it collects in accordance with its record keeping and information privacy obligations under law and under the IPPS.

Privacy obligations of preschool services from which OECD collects information

The preschool service where a child accesses the Programs must separately comply with privacy obligations in relation to the child and their parent/guardian’s personal information, including in relation to the storage and security of that information. If you have any questions, please contact the service directly.